Protecting Sensitive Data with Egnyte in Today’s Threat Environment

In light of recent attacks against on-premises file server appliances affecting organizations of all sizes and industries, it has become clear that, in many cases, companies would be better suited to choosing cloud solutions for their secure data management needs. 

There are many great products on the market capable of providing easy access to files persisted in your local network. But it’s only after reading the fine print that you realize you haven’t effectively reduced the risk in your environment because, realistically, you’re not getting as many benefits beyond improved productivity as you’re often led to believe.

Cloud SaaS solutions like Egnyte are designed to effectively manage many of the risks associated with data management to aid in your overall risk management strategy. Egnyte’s core competency is caring for your data safety and enabling your employees to perform at their best without worrying about the many compliance and security concerns typically associated with local deployments. 

‍Challenges with On-Premises File Server Appliances

With these appliances, you are still responsible for keeping the system safe and up to date. The release cycle for appliances is infrequent due to the risks involved in updating remote systems. Vendors can’t iterate and fix bugs as quickly with minimal to no impact on customer experience as they can do with the cloud, where they control all system components.

Each company has a burden of patch management on its IT and security teams, who have a plethora of other corporate systems they need to maintain. Local data appliances, while having many benefits, create an obvious target for attackers with sensitive data centralized in a single location – often without dedicated security teams, as is the case with Egnyte. As you become more successful, one box turns into two boxes. Soon, your security and IT teams will inherit a system with critical value to daily business operations. This makes the upgrade process complex yet necessary to maintain a reasonable level of risk.

CISOs and CIOs know very well how a solution can bring a myriad of responsibilities that are simply not visible to the inexperienced eye of someone who advocates for a given product because they seem to really like it. It’s not only the data management software that creates security risks but also the hardware, firmware, and software supporting the local appliance. These all make for a poor choice if you’re looking to onboard your employees by focusing on the longevity of the investment in their training. 

The data management ecosystem has long become an integral part of our day-to-day work, and the decision of choosing one provider versus another cannot be taken lightly. Everyone gets used to their tools, including the external auditors who assess your environment on a yearly basis.

‍Maximizing Value and Reducing Risk with Egnyte

Reduced cost and risk of data management is one of the greatest value propositions we offer through the Egnyte platform. When you acquire a company and take stock of critical data assets, you may need to learn yet another on-premises technology with complex network dependencies. However, with SaaS solutions such as Egnyte, you can always rely on our professional services to complement your team during acquisitions and data integration projects. 

Furthermore, we train our detection systems based on proprietary data, taking advantage of metadata obtained from hundreds of thousands of our users and building baselines that help us protect your environment. This focus on learning at scale makes us equipped to detect attacks and provide guidance on response, including snapshot-based ransomware recovery. Not only is your data safe against environmental/physical threats, but it also has an insurance policy that you won’t be alone in the event of a potential threat (e.g., when an employee accidentally purges critical data from your local appliance).

There is much to be said about local appliances, and they absolutely have their niche. However, backed by countless conversations with our customers’ CISOs and CIOs responsible for data safety at their organizations, we can confidently say that most organizations are better served by delegating a significant portion of their data risks through partnerships with trusted providers. For the better part of 15 years, Egnyte has been building the infrastructure and expanded capabilities meant for this exact purpose – to reduce your data risks and enable an easier path to meet your regulatory and compliance obligations.

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